Politicians say they will examine the letter with allegations toward the president of the National Integrity Commission (NIC), Anatoly Donciu, a letter signed by four other members of the institution. This could be remitted to law enforcement, the National Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and Centre (NAC), say MPs. The letter arrived in Parliament last Wednesday. It was addressed to the President of Parliament Igor Corman and leaders of four factions in Parliament: Valeriu Strelet – LDP, Marian Lupu – DPM, Ion Hadarca – PLR, and Maria Postoico – CPRM.

About this letter ZdG wrote two weeks ago. Then, the letter was written but had not been signed by all members of the institution, who were appointed by Parliament, by proposals of parliament factions. On Wednesday, June 18^th, however, it entered parliament, after all four members of the NIC, Victor Stratila, proposed by civil society, Vera Lupu proposed by the LDP, Dumitru Prijmireanu proposed by CPRM and Leonid Morari, proposed by the DPM, agreed with its contents.

“Here are questions too subtle”

Leader LDP MPs in Parliament, Valeriu Strelet confirmed that such a letter exists. “I saw it. It is transmitted to fraction colleagues for information and colleagues from the Legal Committee Appointments and Immunities for analysis and proposals. I do not know what did other colleagues. We will meet to draw conclusions soon. Yes, it will be discussed”, said Strelet. Asked if he formed a personal opinion, the MP said that, “if it is a petition jointly signed by four members of the NIC, it means that things are pretty serious. And if it is asserted what is asserted, things must be considered in terms of the law”, says Valeriu Strelet.

Ion Hadarca, leader of the legislative LRP fraction also confirmed that he has received such a letter, but declined to rule about it. “I can not comment it. There is Judiciary Committee … Here are questions too subtle to give an opinion. It’s about NIC. It’s an entity too serious to give an opinion. We will see. First profile commission must react”, says Hadarca.

Resetnicov: “Dig and you will find”

I could not find Marian Lupu, leader of the DPM. But we talked with Sergiu Sirbu his colleague, he also Vice President of Legal Committee Appointments and Immunities. He said that he heard about the existence of the letter, but he does not know its content yet. “Such a letter I heard already entered the Parliament and it is left to see what we will do. I understood that there are some accusations in address of Anatoly Donciu on some violations, but we have not yet examined them. The letter came in the Commission, but we did not start its examination yet. It remains to decide when we will do this. Anyway, we will be obliged to examine it. Maybe in 2-3 weeks will do this. But, we will see the competence of Commission and what we can do under the law. If there are certain violations, we must see who is competent to examine them”, said Sarbu. He admits that the letter could be sent to law enforcement. “Certainly. Prosecutor, NAC must examine it. In DPM, we still have not talked about this letter. It’s only a few days since it arrived. But certainly we’ll discuss it”, said the deputy.

Maria Postoico leader of Communist deputies did not respond to ZdG calls. Her colleague, deputy Artur Resetnicov told us he is not aware of such a letter, nor has the time to research and tell us about CPRM position. “Contact Mrs. Postoico. Dig, try and find her”, prompted us former head of the Security and Information Service (SIS).

NIC members expect “normalization of the situation”

Meanwhile, in the midst of scandal, until July 14^th, as we were informed by representatives of NIC, Anatoly Donciu is on holiday. Victor Stratila, Deputy Chairman, said that after the letter will be discussed by MPs, “we expect Mr. President to understand that NIC is a collegial body and all decisions he have to discuss with us, not to adopt them by himself, unilaterally and without even communicating what he decided”. Asked whether a solution in solving problems would be the resignation of Anatoly Donciu, Stratila said: “he will decide. The way he so far leaded put big question marks vis-à-vis his capabilities to lead.

“Leonid Morari, another member of the NIC, who signed the letter, says he expects the normalization of the situation. Asked if the resignation of Anatoly Donciu would be a solution, Morari said that “I do not think someone will get to something like that. I think it’s not the time, it’s not the case. We want to improve work and return to normality. You know man spends most of his life at work, and there everything should be normal”, she stated.

In turn, Vera Lupu says that expects after the letter will be analized by MPs, things to revert to normal. “I do not think this is not possible”, she said. Asked if it is possible to normalize the situation without Anatoly Donciu to leave office, Vera Lupu said: “It’s a situation where if four members of the Commission shall exhibit a common position vis-a-vis the change process itself in a legal sense of the word …, I would not necessarily intend to insist that Mr. Donciu to leave or not to leave. It is not my mission and my purpose to do this. I think it is a situation that can be resolved peacefully as we enter the path of legal enforcement”, she pointed. Dumitru Prijmireanu, member of NIC from CPRM, did not answer the phone.

The history of conflict between Donciu and colleagues

Recall that, ZdG was writing in the number from June 12, 2014 about intention of NIC members to submit to Parliament a letter claiming actions of Anatoly Donciu, president of NIC. They requested the intervention of MPs to “take note of negligence, abuse of power and multiple violations of law” committed by him. The letter says that Donciu acted biased in several cases examined by the Commission, as having a hostile attitude towards members of NIC and imposes employees of NIC Office, not to present to Committee members requested information and documents, which Committee members need for their work. “This attitude of the President of the Commission led to the division into two camps, one – loyal to President Donciu, and another – trying to be impartial, which Donciu do not accept and blackmail employees by depriving of awards, not granting wage increases due”, say NIC employees.

They also write that Donciu would have hired personal driver, that often is absent from work, because delayed the process of scanning statements, and this led to postponement of verifying the statements of incomes and property of officials, and also that “under dubious and unjustified conditions” gave the company that scanned the declarations last year about 150 thousand lei statements in addition to the signed original contract value.

Anatoly Donciu then rejected accusations. “I want to think it is not a political element”, he said. He was then based on the fact that the letter was not signed yet. Simultaneously, Donciu was mentioning, in a statement posted on the NIC website, that “some people, directed from the shadow, through invented insinuations are trying to mislead public opinion to compromise NIC and mimic its inefficient management. But objective reality shows the opposite, confirming that the NIC, although at its beginning, having a modest experience of just a year and a half, activates naturally, exercising its basic tasks to repress corruption … Regrettably is that some people, instead of proposals for improving legislation in this chapter, use this situation as motives to confuse society and achieve personal favors”, attacks Donciu.

Victor MOSNEAG